⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The Federal Circuit considers a veteran's effort to obtain about three additional years of disability compensation. The Department of Veterans Affairs granted her payments at the total-disability rate based on inability to work, starting in 2015. She says that issue had already been raised in a 2012 disability claim and should have been addressed then. In 2019, the Board of Veterans' Appeals rejected an earlier start date and found that the older claim had been implicitly denied. It separately referred an allegation of clear and unmistakable error to a regional office. That is a special way to challenge a final agency decision, not an ordinary chance to weigh the evidence again. The later proceedings rejected her challenge, and the Veterans Court treated the 2019 finding as final because she had not appealed it. The veteran will argue that the separate error claim still allowed review of whether the 2012 claim was ever decided. The government will argue that the unappealed 2019 decision settled that question for this appeal. Listen for the distinction between asking whether a claim was decided at all and asking whether the decision was wrong.

Powell v. Collins (No. 25-1293) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, argued November 5, 2026.